The Beginning of the End
by Rahvin Dashiva
Summary: Set in the very beginning of the Gundam Wing series, and starts before Operation Meteor even gets started. Tells the story of the downfall of the United Earth Sphere Alliance, from the perspective of the common soldier. In more detail than the series did.
1. Chapter 1

_Lake Victoria training facility_

_AC 194_

_April 9__th_

_1021 hrs local time_

"Cadet Williams."

Daniel threw an unsteady salute. "Present, Lieutenant."

Lieutenant Noin made a note on her clipboard. "Right," she said, "that's everyone. Down to business."

She took a small remote from her pocket and pressed a button. Behind her, the great double-doors slid open with a scraping hiss. Every one of the twenty Cadets had passed those twenty-metre high doors during basic, and every one of them had wondered what could be behind them. Now, they could finally find out. Daniel was itching to find out if his suspicions were right.

He wasn't disappointed.

The doors slid back into the wall either side, and behind them stood something huge. It was shaped like a man, albeit a very heavily armoured and blocky man. It was painted grey, all except for two slashes of red on each shoulder. The square screen in its head was dark, and the cockpit in its chest was open. It was a Mobile Suit.

Daniel's mind raced. Why was Noin showing them now? Would they get to _pilot_ it? What kind was it?

"This is a Leo." Noin's voice brought him back to reality. "It is the principle fighting unit of the Alliance; sixteen point two metres tall and equipped with a variety of weapons systems. This particular Suit is unarmed – regardless of how careful everyone is, accidents _can_ happen. Normally, Leos have a dark green colouration, in order to provide some basic camouflage in rural areas, and after nightfall."

Daniel wondered how a lick of green paint was going to have a hope in hell of hiding a fifteen-metre tall walking tank. He kept it to himself, though. The military tended to frown on questions like that.

"It is designed primarily for ground combat, and operational doctrines are formed around that." She indicated its legs with one hand. "As you can see, its legs are quite powerful, capable of propelling the Leo at speeds of up to twenty eight miles per hour, and their titanium alloy armour can take anything short of a hit from another Mobile Suit."

Her hand moved upwards, drawing the Cadets' attention to its chest. "The cockpit, as you should remember from basic, is situated in the chest cavity. So is the power core, and the delicate electronics, so be careful. The chest itself is equipped with the same armour as on the legs, rendering the Leo almost immune to small arms and even light tanks. Heavier vehicles might prove a problem, but they should be detected and destroyed before they can present a threat – which brings me on to the next point."

"The Leo's sensor suite is located in the head. Visual, audio, and even olfactory sensors all feed from the head directly into the cockpit. The visual sensors are capable of infrared and ultraviolet spectral analysis, and the audio sensors can isolate, highlight, magnify or mute almost any specific sound, even in the heat of combat."

She lowered her arm, and looked at the Cadets. "The Leo, while a powerful Mobile Suit, is not deployed as a single unit. In combat situations, a single unit can easily be outflanked, outwitted, distracted, and destroyed. This is why the Alliance deploys Leos in packs, usually consisting of three Mobile Suits. Weapons configurations are then spread between the pack in order to ensure that it has the capability to take on any enemy and win."

She smiled. "Now, who wants to volunteer to demonstrate how to operate this thing?"

Daniel's heart leapt into his chest. Someone would actually get to _pilot_ the Leo? Today? He glanced around at his fellow Cadets. Joachim was nodding to himself, quiet as always, as if he had been expecting it all along. He didn't seem to care for being the one to pilot the Leo. Beside him, Sarah had her hand in the air, waving it as fast as she could to try to get Lieutenant Noin's attention. Eagerness practically shone from her.

Daniel couldn't help the smile that came to his lips. He just watched Noin. There was nothing he would like more than to be first in the Leo, but he knew that there was no point in competing with Sarah and the others for the Lieutenant's attention.

Noin consulted her clipboard, then looked back up, smiling. "Cadet Williams? Why don't you come up here?"

Daniel was so surprised he nearly forgot to move. He managed to stop his jaw from dropping, and stepped past the envious Cadets. Noin pointed over her shoulder at the Leo. "Go ahead," she said. "The rope's right there."

Daniel fought to walk calmly and properly to the Leo, and not make a complete fool of himself. If he did something stupid now, he'd never live it down. The rope was smooth when he gripped it, and a faint warmth came off it. He stepped onto the small board at the bottom of the rope, and it began to lift him upwards towards the cockpit.

As it winched him upwards, he looked down at the other Cadets. Sarah was obviously disappointed – her face had crumpled when she wasn't picked. She was by far the most enthusiastic of the Cadets, about everything, whether that be training or leisure. He guessed she had been one of the popular girls at school, before she came here. Those types always expected to be picked first, and were always the most disappointed when they weren't.

Next to her, Joachim was silent and calm as ever, watching Daniel as the rope neared the cockpit. The blond Cadet was the most isolated of the group, rarely socialising after training, preferring to put all his effort into becoming the best soldier he could be. It paid off; he was top of the group by a considerable margin. But still, there was something unknown about him, a sense that, after two years together in the group, he was still an outsider somehow.

The rope juddered to a halt, and Daniel stepped off it and into the Leo's cockpit. The chair was padded, barely, and he settled back into it. He laid his arms down on the sides of the chair, trying not to touch any of the controls. It wouldn't go down too well if he managed to break the Leo as soon as he got into it.

"Okay Williams," called Noin. "I'm switching to radio communications now, so make sure yours is turned on."

Daniel fumbled at his waist for his radio. All the Cadets had been issued with one at the start of basic, both for training with them and if they ever needed to be contacted when they were away from a superior. It was a small personal radio, with a range barely enough to cover the whole of the base, but they worked just fine for training.

Noin's voice came through his earpiece with a crackle. All this money spent on Mobile Suits and they still hadn't got radios to stop crackling. "All right Williams, think you can turn it on?"

Daniel nodded and looked around the cockpit. Bits of his training came to him, familiarisation exercises. The switch should be somewhere around… there. He pressed it.

The Leo's cockpit lights lit up, and the hatch hissed closed. The video panels blinked on, showing him a crystal-clear view of the surroundings. Noin tipped her clipboard at him.

"Everything working up there?" she said.

"Yes Lieutenant," he replied, trying to work out what all the controls did. He knew the basics; activation, movement, firing; but there were far too many buttons and levers for those simple functions. It looked as if someone had taken the bare-bones simulator display he had used in training and filled in all the gaps with more controls.

"Alright then, let's try some sensor movement. The controls for the visual sensors are directly in front of you, underneath the centre screen. Found them?"

She must mean the group of twenty-odd buttons between the activation controls and the weapons priority selectors. "I think so," he said.

"Think?" she replied. "No room for 'I think so' in Mobile Suit combat, Williams. Have you found them or not?"

"Yes Lieutenant," he said.


	2. Chapter 2

_Lake Victoria training facility_

_AC 194_

_July 23__rd_

_1432hrs local time_

The three slate-grey Leos strode heavily through the forest around the base. In the lead Suit, Daniel flicked between sensors, checking his surroundings for any anomalous readings.

"Green lead, this is control," crackled the Leo's radio. "Commence exercise."

He tapped a key. "Control, Green lead. Acknowledged."

Another series of keys, and the cockpit feeds of the other two Cadets in Green team came up on his right screen. After nearly four months of training, he had become used to the controls of the Leo. He'd had to, to keep anywhere near Joachim.

"Alright, Elena, Marcus, you ready?" he said.

Their images nodded at him. "We're set," said Marcus.

"Ready to follow your lead," added Elena.

Daniel let a smile of his own appear. The training group had been pared down to eighteen; Melissa and Damien had dropped out midway through weapons training. Noin had never told them why. Up until then, their exercises had been in randomly assigned groupings, but Noin had started finalising things lately. The group had drifted into their 'packs' of three almost naturally, groups forming of those that got along together and could work with each other at top performance.

Daniel had never seen Marcus and Elena before he came to Lake Victoria. Now, though, after what amounted to nearly half a year of training, they were close friends. Daniel guessed it was just one of those things.

"Ok then," he said. "This might not be live-fire, but it's as close as we're going to get in training, so I want you to treat this like the real thing. Especially since we're going up against the blues today."

The blues, Lake Victoria's top training pack, were led by Joachim. The three were all near the top of the group, with only Sarah and Daniel himself coming between them. Together, they had quickly dominated the training missions, consistently outperforming and outscoring the others. Which was why Daniel was on edge.

It wasn't often that Noin arranged team-on-team missions. Since the Alliance was the only power with the ability to mass-produce combat Mobile Suits, there wasn't much probability of ever going head to head against them. The Lieutenant just used the exercises as a way to keep the Cadets sharp.

"What's the objective, lead?" asked Marcus.

Daniel grinned. Noin had briefed everyone before they had left, but, as usual, Marcus hadn't been paying attention. He preferred to improvise. Daniel would have asked him to straighten up, but he knew that, in a combat situation, having someone used to making things up as they went could be very useful.

"Standard search-and-destroy, three," he said. "Except the blues are searching too. Team that locates and kills the objective with the fewest casualties wins."

"That's it?" said Marcus. "That's all we were given? Ah well, might as well get started."

"Yes, we might," said Elena. "Spread formation, same as usual, lead?"

"For now." Daniel transferred control of the Leo's movement to his left hand. "Keep an eye out, though. Those blues are good." He started the Leo in a steady stride, travelling at around twelve miles per hour. Not as fast as he could go, but fast enough, especially in the dense forest.

"Seems simple enough," said Marcus, his Leo moving up on Daniel's right.

The first warning they had of the blues' presence was when a shot exploded from the trees and into the right knee of Marcus's Leo. The Mobile Suit went down, sensors reading the shot and simulating the damage that would have been sustained, had it been real.

Daniel swore, wrenching his Leo around and bringing up his beam rifle. "Elena, go wide," he ordered. "Flanking tactics. Marcus, you okay in there?"

"Just fine," Marcus replied, although his voice was shakier than usual. His Leo clambered to one knee, hefting its long dobergun up onto its shoulder. The weapon was the most powerful that the Leo could be equipped with as standard, and Marcus showed an almost unhealthy amount of satisfaction whenever he got to shoot things with it.

"Where'd they go?"

Daniel scanned the surroundings, looking for any trace of the blues' grey Leos. Nothing. The shot might as well have come from nowhere. "No idea, three," he replied. "Two, you see anything?"

"Nothing, lead."

And then he saw it, a faint flash of blue-striped grey between two trees. He had his beam rifle aimed at it almost instantly, but it vanished. "Two, come around on heading one-thirty-two," he said. "Carefully. As soon as you see anything, open fire. Surprise is the only advantage we'll have here."

"Roger that," she replied.

"Three, can you move?"

There was a pause as Marcus ran a diagnostic. "Right leg's completely useless. Knee's busted. Everything else's fine, though."

Daniel frowned. If Marcus stayed there, he'd be a sitting duck for the blues, armed or not. But how to move him? "Three, do you still have thrusters? Even just retros?"

"Uh, hold on a minute lead… the main thrusters are still running fine. Retros and verniers on everything but the right leg are all working, too. Why, what did you have in mind?"

"Sling that spare arm around my shoulder. Get your thrusters running, and I'll give you a lift."

Marcus grinned. "Roger than, lead. You know, it's always nice to have such a caring, considerate leader on these missions. Nothing like that tyrant back at base…"

This time it was Daniel's turn to grin. "Oh shut up, three. Flattery may get you everywhere, but it won't get you out of mess duty back at base."

Marcus shrugged. "Worth a try."

Daniel's Leo shuddered as Marcus lent his Suit's weight on it. After a moment, Marcus fired his thrusters up, lifting the Leo partway off the ground. The Leo's thrusters were designed for rudimentary zero-gee manoeuvring, rather than flight, but in this case, they took enough weight off Daniel's that he was still able to move.

Daniel swung his Leo's free arm up and grabbed Marcus's Suit, steadying the two together. "Right, sling that dobergun over my other shoulder and we'll get going. Two, you see anything out there?"

Elena's image popped back up on the screen. "None of the blues, lead. I've got some readings that might be the objective, though. Shall I move up to investigate?"

Daniel considered it. If the objective was that easily detected, then it would be the ideal place to set an ambush. The blues had obviously relocated, or Elena would have spotted them by now, and that was the most likely spot for them to have gone to.

"Wait," he said. "Stay alert, and wait for us to get closer. We'll go in from opposite sides, surprise the blues if they're waiting to ambush us."

"Got it. Hurry up lead. I'm jumping at shadows out here."

Daniel transferred what spare power he had available to the Leo's legs, and set off at a lurching walk. Between his beam rifle and Marcus's dobergun, they had enough firepower to take out any one of the blues. Provided, of course, that the blues just stood there. Not very likely.

So Daniel constantly flicked his attention from sensor to sensor, straining to detect the faintest hint of a Mobile Suit. He even filtered out the background noise of the forest, and overlaid a thermal image onto his visual readouts. There was nothing, except for the gradually-approaching signature of Elena's Suit.

"Three," he said.

"Yeah?"

"How big a bang does that gun make?"

"Very big," grinned Marcus.

"Good. When we get in position, fire it to the right. Maybe it'll distract them some, buy us some time to get in closer to them."

"Gotcha lead."

Daniel checked his sensors. "Two, you ready?"

"In five, lead."

"Start approaching the objective in ten, then. We need a few more seconds to get ready."

"Roger that."

Daniel turned his attention back to the trees. Elena was on her own for now. He checked the Leo's map. They were about in position. "Three, fire."

Daniel threw his Leo into a jerking run as Marcus swung the dobergun out to the side and fired. A deafening _crack-thud_ shook the undergrowth around them and almost unbalanced the two Mobile Suits. The shot tore between trees, incinerating leaves and branches around it, before smashing into a massive Oak. The tree was annihilated, ripped to splinters by the powerful shot, and a cloud of smoke and flaming woodchips exploded high into the air.

Daniel shook his head, a faint smile on his lips. He had almost forgotten just how powerful that gun was. His sensor showed movement, heading towards Marcus' shot. The blues had taken the bait.

"Two, go go go!" he said, and burst from the treeline into a wide clearing. At the centre of the clearing, there was a small bunker-like construction, a tattered flag flying above it. The objective. There was no sign of the blues.

Elena crashed into the clearing from the opposite side, long-pattern beam rifle held ready. "Lead," she said, "any sign of the blues?"

"None," he replied. "Looks like they took the bait. Two, grab the flag, and let's get back to base."

Elena moved forwards, taking the supporting hand from her beam rifle and reaching down for the flag. "Got it lead. Guess the forest's more disorienting than we expected. I was ready for us to get slaughtered out here."

And then a missile streaked from the forest on a trail of whipping grey smoke. It slammed into the head of Elena's Leo, exploding into a cloud of virulent purple paint. Elena's Suit crashed to the ground.

Daniel thrust the control sticks forwards, forgetting he had Marcus on his back. His Leo staggered a clumsy step forwards, then went down to one knee, spilling Marcus onto the dirt.

Cursing, he brought his rifle up, in time to see one of the blues' Leos stride from the forest, firing steadily from the hip. Its fire stitched Marcus' prone Suit, taking the pilot out of action.

Grating his teeth in frunstration, Daniel wrenched the controls around, bringing his Leo up onto its feet and into a headlong charge at the blue Mobile Suit. The blue reacted a second too slow, and Daniel slammed into him, carrying the two suits into te ground.

Daniel fumbled at the waist of his Leo for the beam sabre stored there, finally pulling it free and activating it with a ­_hiss_. All finesse lost, he clumsily hacked it upwards into the blue's midriff, ripping it up to his chest and out. The lights died in the blue's head, and it went limp as its systems simulated the violent fate that it would have suffered if the combat had been real.

He pushed himself to his feet again, just in time to catch a glimpse of another Leo charging at him. Its shoulders bore the blue stripes of the blue team, and it had a beam sabre ignited and ready.

Daniel laughed harshly. Joachim never could turn away the opportunity for a challenge, and there could be no one else in that suit. He brought his own sabre round in a guard position, bracing his Leo's legs on the ground.

Joachim cut his charge short less than two metres from Daniel, stamping one foot into the ground and abruptly changing direction. His Leo went right, and his sabre darted out as he moved, striking for the head of Daniel's Leo.

Daniel barely managed to get his sabre up in time to deflect the blow before Joachim was launching another, this time a low slash at his knees. Daniel stepped backwards hastily and lashed out with his sabre. Joachim parried the strike easily and followed up with a lunge.

Daniel fired the thrusters, and they smashed him into the side of his cockpit as his Leo accelerated leftwards. He blasted clear of Joachim's attack, but the thrusters carried him into the bole of a tree with a scraping, sparking _crunch_. The tree snapped beneath his weight, and he was pitched onto his side.

Daniel felt his head whip left and crash into the side of his cockpit with a sickening _thump_, then blackness overtook him.

When it cleared, it was replaced, slowly, by a dull, throbbing ache in his skull. He opened his eyes.

Joachim's Leo was standing over him, beam sabre extended down to his Leo's head. A red light blinked on his controls, and Daniel pressed it, still feeling groggy. _Minor concussion, maybe_, he thought.

Joachim's face appeared on his screen. The blond pilot gave one of his rare smiles; tight-lipped and superior, but it was still a smile. "That could have been a good trick, Williams, if – _if_ – you pulled it off right. Which you didn't."

"Can't win every time," Daniel croaked, finding his throat to be as dry as the desert.

Joachim's smile broadened slightly. "Oh, we both know that's not true, Williams. Look at Lieutenant Noin; she's never lost a battle yet. Or Lieutenant Zechs. Both of them were trained here, like us. And, one day, I'll be up there with them. Undefeated."

Daniel was trying to think of a reply, when Noin's voice broke in over the radio. "Alright Cadets, that's about enough for now. Faulun, give Williams a hand – it seems that he can manage to damage both himself and his Mobile Suit even in a simulation exercise."

Joachim deactivated his sabre, and extended one of his Leo's blocky hands to Daniel. Daniel blinked a couple of times, trying to get back to alertness, and brought his Leo's hand up to grasp Joachim's. Joachim hauled back on Daniel's Suit, and the two Leos eventually stood side-by-side.

"Can you walk back to base?" asked Joachim.

Daniel mentally slapped himself for not thinking of that sooner, and started a diagnostic. He wouldn't be much good to anyone if he'd managed to break a Leo without any enemy action. He'd seen some of the invoices for the base; the Mobile Suits were horrendously expensive, both to make and to repair.

The diagnostic came back through. "No major damage," he said to Joachim. "Just some motor troubles with the left arm where I hit that tree."

"Good. Let's go." His face disappeared from Daniel's screen.


End file.
